PSA: The Alberta Referendumb

If you think it is dumb and needless, you're right!
If you think you can ignore it, you're wrong.

Having successfully broken public education and healthcare, the grifting monsters who run my province are turning their sights on Confederation now. 

To appease the Christian Nationalists and racists within their own base, the UCP is holding a non-binding referendum on October 19 to ask Albertans if the province should remain in Canada.

So yeah, it is a referendum asking if we should have another referendum. And this is after the greassroots organization Forever Canadian gathered 400,00 signatures in 90 days clearly stating, no, we do not want to separate! But no, instead, these signatures got lumped in with the allegedly 300,000 signatures the separatist movement collected over a longer time period.

Even more telling are the nine other questions on this ballot regarding immigration and the Canadian constitution. There are plenty of guides outlining them and how out of step with Canadian values they are, and I like this "kNOw the nine" guide by Alberta Voices, but at the end of the day, every yes answer to the nine other questions is support to the seppies, and I will not have it.

If you honestly believe that immigration and Federal intereference are the cause the majority or even a significant portion of our problems in Alberta and not this criminally incompetent provincial government, I assume you have either stopped reading already stopped reading or have been scared off by multisylabbic words.

If you are on the fence, or think that, given the amount of grumbling you are hearing, maybe the separatists have a point - please don't. Because they don't.

Separatism is a non-starter here. It has never polled above 20% and is not driven by any kind of vision of a prosperous future, but by the worst and miost divisive kind of grievance politics. Funded and supported by rich people and bot farms from outside of Canada, and even the Premier has admitted it. 

Don't believe me? Read the words of the people backing them up, like Mark Sylvestre, or Bruce McAllister or David Parker. 

Or, better yet, read their nonsensical "Transition Plan" that they recently released, and promises that this new nation will not be shattered by debt, ostracized by the rest of Canada and much of the western world, or susbsumed by the U.S. but be safe and prosperous right out of the gate, defended by noble unicorn cavalry and pigs delivering bitcoin royalty payments to all citizens. Or something.

At this point, if someone tells me they are actually planning to support separation in the referendum, my response is likely to be, "Really? See, I find that surprising because I know I don't know you all that well, but you don't come across as either a Christian Nationalist or an overt racist..."

Anyways, never mind all that - what's important is that even though this whole separatist vote thing is a non-starter, and a smokescreen for actual, fixable issues, every Albertan needs to show up.

Because every single separatist will vote.

And they are hoping you won't. 

The seppies are going to show up in droves, unless there is a literal earthquake or the polling station is in flames. And maybe even then. Low voter turnout drags this embarassing, economically damaging sideshow out even longer than it has already (and will likely continue until the UCP are voted out). 

And to make matters worse, the referndumb is not only needless, and expensive, it is procedurally a complete shitshow by any measure:

• Elections Alberta is understaffed
• Elections Alberta is underresourced - they were denied the additional funding they requested to deal with recall petitions earlier this year and this referendum
• Elections Alberta needs out-of-province help just to count the ballots in a reasonable amount of time.
• The ballot questions are poorly worded, which will cause confusion and long slow lines at polling stations
• Each ballot is its own, separate piece of paper which must be folded in a specific way to prevent spoiling (and adding still more time to the voting process)

So yeah, even without any sort of intimidation or interference at the polling places, the lineups are going to be ridiculous.

How to deal with it? Don't. 

Just don't go.

Request a special ballot and send it in by mail instead. 

Up until September 25, you can request a Special Ballot from Elections Alberta at this link, or in person at your local Returning Office. Answer all ten questions  and send them in by mail in a special envelope early enough that they are received by 5:00 p.m. October 16.

Avoid the lineups! Vote from the comfort of home!

And ask every Albertan in your life to do the same. 

Share this post! Spread the word! I am really hoping for a high amount of voter turnout, and a demoralizing blow to all the separatists, Wexiters, and everyone else trying to transform the province I have lived in most of my life, and incidentally, destroy the country I love.